Agents and police officers deny that there is any confusion over Mohammad Sidique Khan
POLICE in New York have confirmed that more than two years before the July 7 bombings in London they had carried out an investigation into the activities of a British-born extremist who went on to lead the attacks.
Mohammad Sidique Khan was implicated in a plot to blow up synagogues on the American East Coast in March 2003 and US officials who took part in the inquiry into his activities insist that British intelligence was aware of the operation.
MI5 has always denied knowing that the Yorkshire-born teaching assistant was a potential danger when Khan’s name was reportedly placed on a US “No-Fly” list in 2003 and he was prevented from visiting New York. Senior British security officials say, however, that Khan had never been under surveillance from any Western intelligence agency before the London attacks.
When a new book by the US author Ron Suskind, serialised in The Times last week, disclosed that the CIA was aware of Khan after he made two trips to America in 2002 to contact local Islamic extremists, British security sources questioned whether US intelligence might have confused two men with the family name of Khan.
Police and FBI agents who worked on this operation emphatically deny any confusion. They have told The Times that their investigation into the threat to bomb a number of synagogues involved the man who led the 7/7 attacks.
Paul J. Browne, the deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, said: “We were aware of the plot and took appropriate precautions.” The NYPD confirmed to The Times that the plot involved Mohammad Sidique Khan. Warnings were issued to Jewish groups and synagogues at the time.
Survivors of the London attacks and politicians say that the claims made in Suskind’s book, The One Percent Doctrine, strengthened the case for a full public inquiry into intelligence lapses before the attack on July 7. Downing Street said that there was no need for any further investigation into the events leading up to the bombing of three Underground trains and a double-deck bus.
A New York task force, which included FBI agents, detectives and immigration staff, liaised in spring 2003 with the CIA over Khan’s file. Dan Coleman, a retired FBI agent regarded as the bureau’s foremost expert on Islamic extremism, described Khan in his report to Joseph J. Billy, the assistant director of the FBI counter-terrorism division, as very dangerous. He said yesterday: “I believe this is the man behind the July 7 bombings, and I was perfectly aware that there was another investigation at the time into another man with the family name Khan, from Britain. We took the view this Khan [Mohammad Sidique Khan] was too much of a risk to allow into the US so prevented him from boarding his aircraft at Heathrow.”
Officers who took part in this operation said that the CIA gave them only 36 hours’ notice that Khan was booked on a British Airways flight to JFK airport in New York. One senior figure involved in the inquiry said: “I remember saying, ‘Do the British think they are sending an unwanted militant to some African dictatorship to take care of because they haven’t the evidence to deal with him?’ I thought this was appalling behaviour.” He said that from the files he read, no British police force was involved.
After studying e-mails, the officers said that Khan was becoming more strident in tone about wanting to blow up synagogues. “There was no mention of specific targets in these e-mails, nor of suicide bombings or the method for delivering the devices, but it was clear he wanted to take part.”
At the time of the 2003 inquiry the task force decided that they dare not risk losing Khan and ordered that he should be stopped at the BA ticket counter and told that he could not enter the US.
He said that this investigation had been entirely separate to another US inquiry taking place at the same time on another British militant, Mohammed Jamal Khan.
The FBI said in a statement this week that it believed that there could have been a mix-up over names. Mohammed Jamal Khan was sentenced to nine years in Britain this year for directing a terrorist organisation. He had been visiting the US since the 1990s and was under surveillance by the FBI.
Jamal Khan was from a different part of Britain, was born in Pakistan, was married with two children and lived with his elderly parents in Coventry, details that differ in all respects from Sidique Khan.
Suskind said last night: “There is no case of mistaken identity. Everyone involved knows the difference between the two guys. For somebody who is an expert in terrorism to mix these men up is like mixing up Tony Blair and Benny Hill.”
Daniel McGrory
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